Thread spool and reflecting member for apparatus for monitoring the thread supply of a loom



March 22, 1966 J. MULLER 3,241,789

THREAD SP AND REFLEGTING ME R FOR APPARATUS ORING FOR MO THE THREAD S P LY OF A LOOM Filed Jan. 22, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 mfg/- Fig.7A Fig.7B Flg. 7c L Mg March 22, 1966 MULLER 3,241,789

THREAD SPOOL AND REFLECTING MEMBER FOR APPARATUS FOR MONITORING THE THREAD SUPPLY OF A LOOM Filed Jan. 22, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fiq-8 United States Patent Office 334L789 Patented Mar. 22, 1966 3,241,789 THREAD SPOOL AND REFLECTING MEMBER FOR APPARATUS FOR MONITORING THE THREAD SUPPLY OF A LOOM Jalrob Miiller, Frick, Aargau, Switzerland Filed Jan. 22, 1964, Ser. No. 339,528 Claims priority, application Switzerland, Nov. 26, 1961, 13,792/ 61 12 Claims. (Cl. 242-11832) The present invention refers to textile machinery and more specifically to a thread spool, particularly for carrying the weft thread supply on the shuttle of a loom, and other elements suitable for being used as elements of an apparatus for monitoring the available weft thread supply from shuttle means in a loom, particularly in a ribbon weaving loom.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Ser. No. 243,696, filed November 26, 1962, for Apparatus for Monitoring the Available Weft Thread Supply From Shuttle Means in a Loom.

In the operation of a loom, it is always desirable to monitor the available weft thread supply from the shuttle means of the loom because the available supply of thread may be affected in two ways: first, as the thread is unwound from the spool carried by the shuttle means, the available supply of thread from the spool and therefore from the shuttle means may become exhausted in which case a new spool has to be inserted with a new supply of weft thread; second, the thread which is pulled off the spool may break.

In both cases a monitoring device continuously checking on the available weft thread supply would have to give a signal so that the loom may be stopped and in the first case a new spool with a new supply of thread inserted, while in the second case the ends of the broken thread would have to be tied together. In the first case where a new spool with thread has to be inserted, it is additionally desirable that the monitoring device furnishes a signal somewhat before the available supply of thread on the spool is completely exhausted.

For monitoring the available thread supply in a loom, it is known to use photo-electric means namely a source of light directing a beam of light to a selected area of the loom where ordinarily during operation thread furnished by the thread supply is present, and photo-responsive indicator means exposed to said beam of light when no thread is present in the above mentioned area whereby an indication is obtained that under these circumstances no thread supply is available for operation.

Arrangements of this nature have been found as not entirely satisfactory or efficient.

It is therefore one of the objects of this invention to provide for light responsive devices that can be used advantageously in an apparatus for monitoring the available weft thread supply from shuttle means in a loom and which are more eflicient than conventional devices of similar nature.

It is another object of the invention to provide reflector means of improved efiiciency for reflecting the beam of light mentioned above toward the light-responsive indicator means when the available weft thread supply from the shuttle means of the loom is reduced to a minimum, which minimum may include zero.

It is still another object of the invention to provide for reflector members of increased efliciency when used in a monitoring arrangement as mentioned above.

With the above objects in view, the invention includes a thread spool, particularly for carrying the weft thread supply on the shuttle of a loom, said spool having a body adapted to be covered by thread material wound about it and having at least two distinct reflecting faces extending substantially codirectional with its axis, said reflecting faces being substantially covered by said thread and becoming at least partly uncovered when said thread is unwound to a predetermined degree from the spool.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1-7D illustrate a weft thread spool shaped in accordance with the invention for being used as a reflector member, FIG. 1 being an elevation of a spool according to the invention and FIGS. 24 being cross-sectional end views illustrating three different cross-sectional forms of the spool according to FIG. 1, the section taken along the line AA of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an elevation of a spool according to the invention showing a modification of the cross-sectional form according to FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional end view of the spool according to FIG. 5, the section being taken along the line FIG. 7 is an elevation of a spool showing a further modification of its reflecting surface;

FIG. 7A is a partial cross-sectional view through the embodiment of the spool shown in FIG. 7, drawn to an enlarged scale;

FIGS. 7B and 7C are partial cross-sectional views similar to FIG. 7A and respectively showing further modification;

FIG. 7D is a cross-sectional end view of a further modification of a spool;

FIG. 8 is a partly sectional elevation of a conventional monitoring apparatus with a spool and other reflector means which may be modified in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 9 is a plan view of the main portion of the arrangement according to FIG. 8; and

FIGS. 10-14 illustrate diagrammatically several embodiments of a reflector member according to the invention.

In order to facilitate the understanding of the present invention, the overall arrangement according to FIGS. 8 and 9 will be described first.

In FIGS. 8 and 9 the shuttle 22 of a ribbon weaving loom is shown having a base portion arranged for sliding movement between guides 23 and 24 of a portion 25 of the loom. The shuttle 22 has an arched portion 21 in which a spool 9 may be held as shown by being supported by a rod 10 which is insertable into the shuttle. The Weft thread carried by the spool is pulled off the spool and guided through guide rings 12, 13, 14 and 15 arranged in a conventional manner as shown in FIG. 9 and from there through a guide sleeve 16 where it leaves the shuttle.

A photo-electric unit 27 of a conventional design is mounted stationarily on a portion 26 of the loom and contains a source of light directing a beam of light along line 8 toward the path of the shuttle 22 and more specifically toward the path of the spool 9 carried by the shuttle 22. The outer surface of the spool 9 is provided with a light reflecting surface so that during operation, when the innermost layer of thread is at least partly removed from the spool the light beam 8 will be reflected by the reflecting outer surface of the spool 9, at least in that position of the shuttle in which the reflecting portion of the spool surface is located across the beam 8, along line 8' toward a convention photo-responsive indicator in the unit 27. This indicator would indicate in any conventional manner, e.g. by giving an electric signal, that the available supply of weft thread on the spool 9 is reduced to a certain minimum so that thereby the operator is warned to stop the machine and to replace the empty spool by a new spool with a new supply of weft thread.

In order also to monitor the possibility that the available weft thread supply for the loom is reduced to zero because of a break of the thread, a reflector member, e.g. a small mirror 17 carried by a flexible or tiltable wire 18 is so mounted in the arched portion 21 of the shuttle 22 that the wire 18 normally rests on a portion of the thread extended between the guide rings 14 and 15 so as to be held by the tensioned thread in the position shown in full lines in FIG. 1 so that the mirror 17 does not extend across the incoming light beam 8 or the reflected light beam 8. However, if the thread should break, the tension of the thread between the rings 14 and 15 vanishes and the mirror 17 moves into the position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 8, namely so as to extend across the beam 8. Under these conditions the beam 8 will be reflected again in the direction of the line 8 by the mirror 17 so that again the indicator device in the unit 27 would indicate that at this moment there is no weft thread supply available for the loom.

It has been found that the reflection of the incoming beam 8 by the conventional reflector members of the above described arrangement is of comparatively low efficiency. It is to be borne in mind that during operation of the loom, the shuttle is in continuous movement so that the reflecting surface of the reflecting member which may be either the spool surface or the mirror 17 traverses the beam 8 only once with every stroke of the shuttle so that the beam 8 will be reflected in the direction 8 only for an extremely brief moment. In addition, if the reflecting surface of the spool 9 has the conventional cylindrical shape, the light rays in the beam along line 8 will be reflected by the cylindrical reflecting surface in a diffuse manner and theoretically only one ray which impinges exactly in radical direction on the cylindrical surface will be reflected in the direction 8.

This disadvantage is greatly rdeuced or even entirely eliminated, and the efliciency of the photo-electric system greatly improved if, according to the invention, the reflecting member in the shuttle is constructed to have at least two distinct reflecting faces, each reflecting in a different particular position of said shuttle means and of the reflecting member rays of light of the incoming beam in a predetermined direction, respectively, namely in the direction of the line 8.

Referring now to FIGS. 17, a reflecting member is illustrated which constitutes or is constituted by the above mentioned weft thread spool.

In FIG. 1 the spool is provided with end flanges 2 and 2 and with an axial bore 3 adapted to receive the above mentioned support rod or axle 10.

As shown by FIGS. 24, the body of the spool 1 has a cross section providing along the circumference of the spool 1 at least two distinct reflecting faces. According to FIG. 2, the cross-section of the spool body is hexagonal so that in circumferential direction six distinct plane reflecting faces 4 are provided. As the shuttle moves and as the spool 1 turns during operation of the loom, there is bound to occur in intervals a position of the shuttle and an angularly orientated position of the spool in which the beam of light 8 impinges on one of the faces 4 and is fully reflected without diffusion in the direction of the line 8 toward the unit 27.

In the modification of FIG. 3, the individual distinct reflecting faces 4' of the spool are concave so that in addition to the above described effect, the rays of light impinging on a face 4' are concentrated upon their reflection toward the line 8' whereby the intensity of the reflected beam upon arrival at the unit 27 is increased.

The concave shape of the faces 4 may be cylindrical, elliptical, or hyperbolical with similar effect.

According to FIG. 4, the individual faces 4" of the spool may also be made convex. In this case a concentrated reflection of the beam 8 occurs when the latter impinges on that area of the reflecting surface of the spool where two adjoining convex faces 4" meet since this area constitutes a groove with inclined lateral portions which act similarly as the concave faces 4'.

The etficiency of the reflection of light by the surface of a spool as described above can be increased still more if, according to FIGS. 5 and 6, the body of the spool is formed not as a straight prism with cross-sections, e.g. according to FIGS. 2-4, but is subdivided into portions 5, 5 and 6, each having one of the above described crosssections, the center portion 6 being however angularly offset against the portions 5 and 5 by 30 in the particular case where the cross-section is essentially a hexagon.

The reflecting effect of the spool surface can be still further increased by greatly increasing the number of distinct reflecting faces thereof. By way of example, FIG. 7 illustrates a spool having an integral body the surface of which forming a reflecting surface composed of a great number of small individual facets which can be produced for instance by the well known hammering process. However, it is to be understood that also in this case the individual facets may be either plane as shown at 7 in FIG. 7A, concave, as shown at 7' in FIG. 7B or convex, as shown at 7" in FIG. 7C. The relative position of the individual facets with respect to the neighboring facets can be chosen in any desirable manner, and between the individual facets there may be left surface portions which are not light reflecting.

Referring once more to FIGS. 5 and 6, it should be understood that the characteristic arrangement illustrated thereby may be further modified in such a manner that the polygonal cross-sections of the portions 5, 5 and 6 may differ from each other. For instance, one portion may have hexagonal and another portion may have octagonal cross-section. Of course, the number of distinct faces following each other in circumferential direction at any cross-section of the spool may be varied as desired. Also the cross-section according to FIG. 4 may be so modified that, for instance, three convex faces 4 are combined with three concave faces 4' respectively arranged between the convex faces.

The above described principle of the invention consisting in providing in a reflecting member at least two distinct reflecting faces can be applied in a manner similar to that described above also to a reflecting member as the mirror 17 in FIGS. 8 and 9. Therefore, FIGS. 1014 illustrate by way of example such embodiments of the invention wherein the mirror 17 is provided with at least two distinct reflecting faces analogous to those described above in reference to FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 7 and 7A.

According to FIG. 14, the reflecting member has a body portion 1' with a recess filled with a transparent portion 28 so that light impinging thereon is not only reflected by the outer face 4 but also by the inner faces 29.

FIG. 7A shows a further advantageous modification of a spool. The reflecting members 28 are embedded in recesses of the spool body 1 and are transparent, so that the beam of light 8 can be reflected by its inner faces 29 in direction 8" as well as by the outer faces 4, in direction 8. Thus, the intensity of reflected light is greatly increased.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of thread spools and reflector members for apparatus for monitoring the available weft thread supply from shuttle means in a loom differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in thread spools and reflecting members having at least two distinct reflecting faces, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A thread spool, particularly for carrying a weft thread supplied on a shuttle of a loom, said spool having a body composed of at least two portions, each formed as a polygonal prism coaxial with the other portion and coaxial with the axis of the spool, one portion being angularly offset against the other relative to the common axis thereof, the sides of said polygonal prisms constituting distinct reflecting faces.

2. A thread spool as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said distinct reflecting faces is substantially plane.

3. A thread spool as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said distinct reflecting faces is concave.

4. A thread spool as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said distinct reflecting faces is convex.

5. A thread spool, particularly for carrying a weft thread supply on a shuttle of a loom, said spool having a body having reflecting faces substantially codirectional with its axis and constituted by a plurality of facets arranged along the whole length of said spool.

6. A thread spool, as set forth in claim 5, wherein said facets are convex and constitute a hammered pattern.

7. A thread spool as set forth in claim 5, wherein said facets are concave and constitute a hammered pattern.

8. A thread spool, particularly for carrying a weft thread supply on a shuttle of a loom, said spool having a body formed at least partly as a polygonal prism the sides of which having transparent portions having outer and inner reflecting faces extending substantially codirectional with the axis of said polygonal prism.

9. A light reflecting member for a shuttle moving in a given direction, said member comprising a body formed at least partly as polygonal prism with at least one recess and a transparent body portion embedded in said recess and having outer and inner reflecting surfaces extending substantially codirectional with the movement of the shuttle.

10. A light reflecting member for a shuttle moving in a given direction, said member having distinct reflecting faces extending substantially codirectional with the direction of movement of the shuttle and constituted by a plurality of facets arranged along the whole length of said member.

11. A light reflecting member as set forth in claim 10, wherein said facets are convex and constitute a hammered pattern.

12. A light reflecting member as set forth in claim 10, wherein said facets are concave and constitute a hammered pattern.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,971,695 2/1961 Sick 139273.1 3,053,139 9/1962 Loepfe 139273.1

FOREIGN PATENTS 850,730 7/ 1949 Germany. 477,585 1/ 1953 Italy. 228,412 11/ 1943 Switzerland.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

DONALD W. PARKER, Examiner.

H. S. JAUDON, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A THREAD SPOOL, PARTICULARLY FOR CARRYING A WEFT THREAD SUPPLIED ON A SHUTTLE OF A LOOM, SAID SPOOL HAVING A BODY COMPOSED OF AT LEAST TWO PORTIONS, EACH FORMED AS A POLYGONAL PRISM COAXIAL WITH THE OTHER PORTION AND COXIAL WITH THE AXIS OF THE SPOOL, ONE PORTION BEING ANGULARLY OFFSET AGAINST THE OTHER RELATIVE TO THE COMMON AXIS THEREOF, THE SIDES OF SAID POLYGONAL PRISMS CONSTITUTING DISTINCT REFLECTING FACES. 